Zenyatta Mondatta in a Day

By Dougald MacDonald
, Jul 29, 2005

El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California.Photo by Luke Laeser

Ammon McNeely, Ivo Ninov and Kevin Jaramillo made the first one-day ascent of the hard-aid classic Zenyatta Mondatta at the end of June. The trio climbed the 16-pitch El Capitan route in 22 hours 56 minutes. With sustained difficulties and loose rock, Zenyatta Mondatta (5.7 A4) has seen numerous one-day attempts, but until now no one had done it under 24 hours. The climb went smoothly except when McNeely broke a hold while hooking on pitch 10 and went for a 40-footer.

Although McNeely and Ninov are among Yosemite’s most experienced big-wall speed climbers, Jaramillo had never done a single-push ascent. However, McNeely wrote to the www.supertopo.com forum, “He was a natural.” Jaramillo ended up leading half of the route’s pitches. Perhaps it’s just tradition with this route: When Jim Bridwell, Peter Mayfield and Charlie Row did the first ascent of Zenyatta Mondatta in 1981, it was only Mayfield’s second big wall.